COCOANUT 



1457 



COCOANUT 



Chocolate is the cocoa mass with the fat left 

 in. If sugar and flavoring are added, the prod- 

 uct becomes sweet chocolate. The fat ex- 

 tracted from the cocoa is sold under the name 

 of cocoa butter, and is used as a basis for 

 creams and pomades for the hair and skin and 

 in candy making. The shells of the cocoa 

 beans, usually regarded as a waste product, 

 are sometimes roasted with coffee to add to its 

 flnvnr, and in some sections peasants use them 

 as a substitute for tea and coffee. 



Food Value. The cocoa bean yields a val- 

 uable food product, whether in the form of 

 chocolate or of commercial cocoa. When used 

 in moderation the beverage made from either 

 of these substances is agreeable and nutritious, 

 and superior to both tea and coffee, for the 

 latter are excitants and are without food value. 

 Cocoa and chocolate contain an alkaloid which 

 is an excitant, and most people should not 

 indulge too generously in these beverages. 

 Some people will be made wakeful at night by 

 even a single cup of strong cocoa drunk during 

 the evening. Too free indulgence in chocolate 

 ilrinks at soda water fountains, and the ex- 

 cessive eating of chocolate candy will prove 

 harmful, partly because of the effect of the 

 excitant, caffeine. B.M.W. 



COCOANUT, or COCONUT, ko'koiiut, the 

 oval, hard, brown-shelled, three-eyed fruit of 

 a tropical palm tree. Its thick, stringy husk, 

 surrounding the firm, white, fleshy, hollow ker- 

 nel, with its sweet whitish milk, is familiar 

 everywhere, either in its natural state or in 

 shredded form, as used in pastries. Boys and 

 girls like to break the thick, hairy shells of 

 the nuts and eat the sweet, white interior and 

 drink its cool "milk," but the principal use 

 to which the kernel is put is for pies, puddings 

 and candies, after it has been chopped into 

 fine pieces, or shredded. Perhaps few know 

 its life history and are aware that the tree is 

 one of the most useful in the world. 



The Cocoanut's Story. Ages and ages ago, 

 a tall straight palm grew near a tropical ocean. 

 Its naked trunk, about sixty feet high, was 

 topped with a crown of featherlike leaves, 

 among which hung a cluster of a dozen or more 

 nuts. One day possibly a monkey climbed up 

 to look for food and shook down a few ripe 

 nuts which, falling into the water, floated away. 

 Washed to the shore at spots here and there, 

 they sent forth roots and stems from their 

 three black eyes, and so new trees grew. And 

 now along the Indian coasts and on the South 

 Sea Islands grow thousands of these trees, and 

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because of their many uses they have been 

 extensively planted in Africa and South Amer- 

 ica in fact, almost everywhere in tropical 

 countries, principally hear the seashore. Cocoa- 



COCOANUT 

 Tree and fruit, and the method of gathering. 



nuts furnish a cooling drink to natives of the 

 countries where they grow. The refreshing 

 milky sap is obtained by cutting through two 

 or all of the fruit's eyes. 



Cocoanut Palm Products. To the natives of 

 the countries where this tree grows, the cocoa- 

 nut is an important article of food. The fruit 

 is eaten ripe or green; the cabbagelike bud 

 at the top of the tree is boiled and eaten. Palm 



Carbohydrates, 31.5 



Protein, 6.3 



FOOD VALUE OF COCOANUT 



wine is made from the sap, which when distilled 

 produces a very strong liquor called arrack. 

 The cocoanut oil or butter of commerce is 

 pressed from the fruit, to be used in making 

 marine soap and stearin candles and for numer- 

 ous other purposes. The leaves are used for 

 forage and to thatch cottages. From their 

 fibers cordage, baskets, sacks and other useiiu 



